SoT 256: Live at Surfcoast Skepticamp 2017

Published: March 6, 2017, 12:46 p.m.

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Hosts: Ed Brown, Lucas Randall and Jo Benhamu.

00:00:51 NASA has announced the discovery of seven planets outside our solar system that all orbit the same star and are about Earth-size. Three of them are firmly located in the habitable zone, and therefore likely to have liquid water.

00:13:15 Last year Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the world\'s richest doctor, launched "Cancer MoonShot 2020", a coalition of drug and biotech companies working on cancer treatments and personalized medicine. A year later, with little credible evidence behind it, the initiative has been described as little more than "an elaborate marketing tool".

00:28:11 For the first time, astronomers have have observed the immediate aftermath of a supernova, detecting it just three hours after it exploded.

00:33:55 The first comprehensive assessment of Europe\'s crickets and grasshoppers has found that more than a quarter of species are being driven to extinction.

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This episode contains traces of NASA\'s Thomas Zurbuchen discussing the philosophical impact of the exoplanet discovery.

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